“Oh?” Fred put aside his keyboard mouse and sat back. He’d heard about Janie’s job, he thought, groaning inwardly. He drew in a long breath. “What rumors?” he asked innocently.
Leo leaned forward, his crossed arms on his knees. “That you’re looking for partners here.”
“Oh. That.” Fred cleared his throat and looked past Leo. “Just a few little setbacks…”
“Why didn’t you come to me?” Leo persisted, scowling. “I’d loan you anything you needed on the strength of your signature. You know that.”
Fred swallowed. “I do… know that. But I wouldn’t dare. Under the circumstances.” He avoided Leo’s piercing stare.
“What circumstances?” Leo asked with resignation, when he realized that he was going to have to pry every scrap of information out of his friend.
“Janie.”
Leo’s breath expelled in a rush. He’d wondered if Fred knew about the friction between the two of them. It was apparent that he did. “I see.”
Fred glanced at him and winced. “She won’t hear your name mentioned,” he said apologetically. “I couldn’t go to you behind her back, and she’d find out anyway, sooner or later. Jacobsville is a small town.”
“She wouldn’t be likely to find out when she’s away at college,” Leo assured him. “She has gone back, hasn’t she?”
There was going to be an explosion. Fred knew it without saying a word. “Uh, Leo, she hasn’t gone back, exactly.”
His eyebrows lifted. “She’s not here. I asked Hettie. She flushed and almost dragged me in here without saying anything except Janie wasn’t around. I assumed she’d gone back to school.”
“No. She’s, uh, got a job, Leo. A good job,” he added, trying to reassure himself. “She likes it very much.”
“Doing what, for God’s sake?” Leo demanded. “She has no skills to speak of!”
“She’s cooking. At a restaurant.”
Leo felt his forehead. “No fever,” he murmured to himself. It was a well-known fact that Janie could burn water in a pan. He pinned Fred with his eyes. “Would you like to repeat that?”
“She’s cooking. She can cook,” he added belligerently at Leo’s frank astonishment. “Hettie spent two months with her in the kitchen. She can even make…” he started to say “biscuits” and thought better of it “… pizza.”
Leo whistled softly. “Fred, I didn’t know things were that bad. I’m sorry.”
“The bull dying was nobody’s fault,” Fred said heavily. “But I used money I hoped to recoup to buy him, and there was no insurance. Very few small ranchers could take a loss like that and remain standing. He was a champion’s offspring.”
“I know that. I’d help, if you’d let me,” Leo said earnestly. “I appreciate it. But I can’t.”
There was a long, pregnant pause. “Janie told you about what happened at the ball, I suppose,” Leo added curtly.
“No. She hasn’t said a single word about that,” Fred replied. He frowned. “Why?” He understood, belatedly, Leo’s concerned stare. “She did tell me about what happened in the hardware store,” he added slowly. “There’s more?”
Leo glanced away. “There was some unpleasantness at the ball, as well. We had a major fight.” He studied his big hands. “I’ve made some serious mistakes lately. I believed some gossip about Janie that I should never have credited. I know better now, but it’s too late. She won’t let me close enough to apologize.”
That was news. “When did you see her?” Fred asked, playing for time.
“In town at the bank Friday,” he said. “She snubbed me.” He smiled faintly. It had actually hurt when she’d given him a harsh glare, followed by complete oblivion to his presence. “First time that’s happened to me in my life.”
“Janie isn’t usually rude,” Fred tried to justify her behavior. “Maybe it’s just the new job…”
“It’s what I said to her, Fred,” the younger man replied heavily. “I really hurt her. Looking back, I don’t know why I ever believed what I was told.”
Fred was reading between the lines. “Marilee can be very convincing, Janie said. And she had a case on you.”
“It wasn’t mutual,” Leo said surprisingly. “I didn’t realize what was going on. Then she told me all these things Janie was telling people…” He stopped and cursed harshly. “I thought I could see through lies. I guess I’m more naive than I thought I was.”
“Any man can be taken in,” Fred reassured him. “It was just bad luck. Janie never said a word about you in public. She’s shy, although you might not realize it. She’d never throw herself at a man. Well, not for real,” he amended with a faint smile. “She did dress up and flirt with you. She told Hettie it was the hardest thing she’d ever done in her life, and she agonized over it for days afterward. Not the mark of a sophisticated woman, is it?”
Leo understood then how far he’d fallen. No wonder she’d been so upset when she overheard him running down her aggressive behavior. “No,” he replied. “I wish I’d seen through it.” He smiled wryly. “I don’t like aggressive, sophisticated women,” he confessed. “Call it a fatal flaw. I liked Janie the way she was.”
“Harmless?” Fred mused.
Leo flushed. “I wouldn’t say that.”
“Wouldn’t you?” Fred leaned back in his chair, smiling at the younger man’s confusion. “I’ve sheltered Janie too much. I wanted her to have a smooth, easy path through life. But I did her no favors. She’s not a dress-up doll, Leo, she’s a woman. She needs to learn independence, self-sufficiency. She has a temper, and she’s learning to use that, too. Last week, she stood up to me for the first time and told me what she was going to do.” He chuckled. “I must confess, it was pretty shocking to realize that my daughter was a woman.”
“She’s going around with Harley,” Leo said curtly.
“Why shouldn’t she? Harley’s a good man—young, but steady and dependable. He, uh, did go up against armed men and held his own, you know.”
Leo did know. It made him furious to know. He didn’t hang out with professional soldiers. He’d been in the service, and briefly in combat, but he’d never fought drug dealers and been written up in newspapers as a local hero.
Fred deduced all that from the look on Leo’s lean face. “It’s not like you think,” he added. “She and Harley are friends. Just friends.”
“Do I care?” came the impassioned reply. He grabbed up his Stetson and got to his feet. He hesitated, turning back to Fred. “I won’t insist, but Janie would never have to know if I took an interest in the ranch,” he added firmly.
Fred was tempted. He sighed and stood up, too. “I’ve worked double shifts for years, trying to keep it solvent. I’ve survived bad markets, drought, unseasonable cold. But this is the worst it’s ever been. I could lose the property so easily.”
“Then don’t take the risk,” Leo insisted. “I can loan you what it takes to get you back in the black. And I promise you, Janie will never know. It will be between the two of us. Don’t lose the ranch out of pride, Fred. It’s been in your family for generations.”
Fred grimaced. “Leo…”
The younger man leaned both hands on the desk and impaled Fred with dark eyes. “Let me help!”
Fred studied the determination, the genuine concern in that piercing